Bright Sparks

Such is the album’s quality that, purely for coining the phrase "inform, educate and entertain", I forgive Lord Reith’s utterly spineless behaviour during the 1926 general strike.

It's actually the sort of single that could be a springboard for something more powerful, and more gripping.

East India Youth’s real strength is being able to balance a whole hod of ideas in a very deft manner. It’s smartly tailored, urbane, soulful music, but independent and with enough teeth showing to keep the listener on their toes.

Long players are fine and dandy. The Galoshins LP is a case in point for the defence.

Move On is very much like the mumbling melodies that Lush were great at, albeit with a sort of Grace Slick coda, you might be twirling your cocktail stick in the remnants of your drink, but you’ve got some pretty tough plans cooking at the same time.

At times it can miss and sort of sink onto an uber-intellectual silly soup (Justo, I’m thinking of you here), but when it’s right it’s… well, fantastic.

...such is the hothouse atmosphere of the music that four tracks are more than enough to digest at first sitting: this no-nonsense and often angsty EP really leaves its mark with the attitude that is cut deep into the recording and an obvious, essential part of the band’s DNA.

The song deals with that eternal question that – like the common cold - never seems to find a cure: “relationships with boys”.

...there’s this toughness about their music; you could guess this could be the work of a bunch of arty chancers, but I don’t think it is. I genuinely think this is the way they want to express themselves.

The ethos of the label seems to be striking the right balance between entertainment and intelligence: there’s no cleverness about any of these records or the bands for that matter, just honesty in the approach and directness in their message.

a heady mixture of bad hip hop, clumsy indie rock and absurd pop

You can imagine this lurid, restless music being a hit with film buffs and other solitary types… though it has a lot of space and a sense of occasion. Just don’t play it at business meetings.

Imagine the ghosts of Flanagan and Allen brought to life - albeit their gentle vibe as pictured by a bunch of speed freaks.

The difficulty is with this sort of music – good songs or not - is that there have been so many bands ploughing this particular sonic furrow this past ten years. And it’s often difficult to pick out the ace in the pack. There again the LP is stuffed with good quality teen pop and I shouldn’t be looking to set agendas in reviews.

I suppose that the absence of any considerations apart from trying to make the best noise they can is what makes this music tick.

The accent is on repetition and meditation rather than any musical proof of the artistic renaissance of the newly gleaming German capital (almost inevitably UMA are from Berlin).

Quiet, reserved, but possessing something intangible and precocious that I just can’t quite put my finger on, tracks like Urban and Ghosts steadily creep up on you.

Despite the lethargy or maybe because of it, there’s something about this record that is very good, almost enchanting, maybe it’s pure attitude that drips from the music, almost like sap from a tree. You get the feeling they really don’t give a shit. I do, I like it.

If you’re looking out for a new slice of power pop/indie rock then Hello Bear will fulfill your head nodding/toe tapping foot quota easily